Comparing evolutionary algorithms on binary constraint satisfaction problems

Constraint handling is not straightforward in evolutionary algorithms (EAs) since the usual search operators, mutation and recombination, are 'blind' to constraints. Nevertheless, the issue is highly relevant, for many challenging problems involve constraints. Over the last decade, numerous EAs for solving constraint satisfaction problems (CSP) have been introduced and studied on various problems. The diversity of approaches and the variety of problems used to study the resulting algorithms prevents a fair and accurate comparison of these algorithms. This paper aligns related work by presenting a concise overview and an extensive performance comparison of all these EAs on a systematically generated test suite of random binary CSPs. The random problem instance generator is based on a theoretical model that fixes deficiencies of models and respective generators that have been formerly used in the evolutionary computing field.